Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt largely accurate list of books shipping from Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. to comic book and hobby shops across North America.

I might not buy all of the works listed here. I might not buy any. You never know. I'd sure look at the following, though.

*****

AUG131327 BATTLING BOY GN VOL 01 $15.99AUG131328 BATTLING BOY HC GN $24.99
I think the highest curiosity factor in quite some time greets the first volume of this new series from First Second featuring the work of Paul Pope. It certainly has the advance buzz and pedigree of a successful project; I just don't know anyone that's told me they've read the whole thing yet. So how people react should be very interesting. Pope's an intriguing talent, now and forever, and I think people want this book to be very good.

JUN131065 PALOOKAVILLE HC VOL 21 (MR) $21.95
This is the rare comic I've read in advance of its release, and it's very good. It makes the previous, also-good issue look like a transitional one. The rubber-stamp diaries are what most people I know that have seen this book are talking about, but I thought it was a pleasing whole.

AUG130108 ART OF TARA MCPHERSON LTD BOX SET $250.00
I barely know McPherson and only know her work a little better, but I'm always fascinated by high-end art book that sell through the comics marketplace and I would surely take notice of a $250 book featuring an artist showing up in my shop.

JUN130046 MIND MGMT HC VOL 02 FUTURIST $19.99
This is the second collection of the ongoing Dark Horse series from the prolific Matt Kindt, as I recall a cerebral spy story. I have to catch up with it, but Kindt is always worth at least checking out and, if your appetites move in his direction, reading.

AUG130090 ABE SAPIEN #6 $3.50AUG130077 ELFQUEST SPECIAL FINAL QUEST ONE SHOT $5.99AUG130064 RESIDENT ALIEN SUICIDE BLONDE #2 $3.99AUG130049 SHAOLIN COWBOY #1 $3.99AUG130330 COFFIN HILL #1 (MR) $2.99AUG130571 ROCKET GIRL #1 [DIG] $3.50AUG130573 THREE #1 [DIG] $2.99AUG130334 ASTRO CITY #5 $3.99AUG130235 BATMAN #24 (NOTE PRICE) $6.99AUG130379 POPEYE CLASSICS ONGOING #15 [DIG/P+] $3.99MAR130457 AMERICAS GOT POWERS #7 [DIG] $2.99AUG130527 WALKING DEAD #1 10TH ANNIVERSARY ED (MR) $5.99AUG130510 WALKING DEAD #115 CVR A (MR) [DIG] $2.99AUG130529 WALKING DEAD TYREESE SPECIAL (MR) [DIG] $2.99AUG130735 INFINITY #4 $3.99JUL130743 JOHNNY THE HOMICIDAL MANIAC #1 NEW PTG $3.50
This is a bunch of compelling or potentially compelling material in terms of the publishing-project aspects of each one, although I'm not sure I would walk out of a shop with more than two or three. There's your Mignola-verse effort, right on top. I have no idea what's going on with the Elfquest franchise right now, but some sort of finale seems in order just in terms of it having been around 35 or so years at this point. That comic was super important to me when I was a 'tween, so I would catch up to any final project type thing they have going on. The Resident Alien is a second series in Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse's fun "Longmire but with an genteel alien as its lead" concept. Shaolin Cowboy is Geof Darrow at his Geof Darrow-est, and I know a ton of friends of mine will be happy to see the promised three issues of this second volume even it's been almost 10 years -- I'm thinking ten years, right? -- since the first. Rocket Girl, Three and Coffin Hill are mainstream genre efforts that are all worth noting; it's not a kind of comic I tend to buy, but it's one that's been an important way for comic shops to keep readers that finally grow tired of mainstream superhero universe building. Astro City, I'm sure, plays a similar role, and I'm happy to see Kurt Busiek writing that series again. I note the price on Batman #24 and hope that big price surges in regular comics series that are popular isn't a new or believed-reliable sales strategy for anyone out there. I would have been one pissed 14-year-old to go to that price point, I think. It's the issue # that interests me with the Popeye Classics; that's a lot of books. America's Got Powers is the Ross/Hitch comic. I remember Ross' last comic book series ended in total meltdown madness, so I hold high hopes for this one. Walking Dead has a few books out for its 10th Anniversary month, including a bunch of covers on #115. That kind of thing always makes me nervous. Infinity is I swear the most recent Marvel event book, although I could be totally wrong. Finally, there's a reprinting of JTHM out; I have no idea if its audience is still passionately devoted to that title or not.

AUG130620 GOD HATES ASTRONAUTS TP VOL 01 (MR) $17.99
This is a super-oddball, modern-cartoon style webcomic effort turned successful kickstarter campaign turned Image collection. This is another one where I'm just sort of curious as to whether it's any good or not, and would use seeing it at my comics shop as a spur to check it out. It looks fun.

JUL130437 MULTIPLE WARHEADS DOWN FALL ONE SHOT (MR) [DIG] $7.99
This is a one-shot collecting some old Brandon Graham work, and it's good enough it has me wondering after my ability to find new work that interests me because I should have been on Graham much, much earlier than I was. If you like the newer stuff, you like this one-shot; if you don't, you won't.

MAY131075 TRITON OF THE SEA GN VOL 01 $19.95
This is an Osamu Tezuka project from the late '60s/early '70s, and because it's Tezuka it's worth at least a check-out by any right-thinking comics fan. Tezuka is obviously on the Mt. Rushmore of 20th Century comics-making. As I recall, this was the project that alarmed people because it was crowd-funded and a bunch of folks were confused that Tezuka would ever have to be crowd-funded.

AUG131266 ROOKIE YEARBOOK TWO SC $29.95
This isn't comics, but it's Drawn and Quarterly, and they sold a ton of the very well-received first volume.

JUN131135 COMPLETE PEANUTS HC BOX SET 1987-1990 $49.99JUN131134 COMPLETE PEANUTS HC VOL 20 1989-1990 $29.99
Seth said during his spotlight panel at SPX that working on the Peanuts trade made him realize that Schulz had a much broader "sweet spot" than anyone previously imagined, if the whole damn run of Peanuts wasn't a sweet spot with a smattering of slightly less inspired moments along the way. I believe this volume would find Schulz in three-panel mode full-time, which gave the strip additional energy for a few years.

MAY130760 MOLLY DANGER HC BOOK 01 $19.95
This was another crowd-funded project, I think about a year ago and I think a very successful one, from the well-liked Jamal Igle. It's work featuring a ten-year-old superheroine, and I know almost nothing else about it.

APR131130 TREASURY OF MINI COMICS HC $29.99
This is probably the most interesting release of the week, the Michael Dowers-edited collection of minis from the last 40 years. Dowers helped facilitate some of the best mini-comics of the 1990s through his Starhead, and had one of the great minis collections at that time and into the 2000s. I'm in this book, so I can't review it -- I wrote something on Dylan Williams -- but my hunch is that this is very much Dowers' tastes as opposed to a wide, wide net that's going to satisfy everybody that ever made one of these comics. I don't know that anyone will be so goofy as to complain publicly about a perceived slight, but then again, this is comics. I hope they do four or five of these things and really get a bunch of work in them. It still won't be all of it.

JUN131279 WIZARD OF ID HC DAILIES & SUNDAYS 1973 $19.95
I don't have a specific interest in the Wizard Of Id comic, and I'm sure my digest-sized paperbacks hold as much of that material as I'm ever likely to want or need, but I do like the idea of publishing representative years of some of the gag-driven strips of the second half of the 20th Century. I think that's a good way to read them.

AUG131637 101 WAYS KILL A ZOMBIE HC $14.95
This is a Christmas gift book, a novelty book, even, but I thought it was kind of charming for that kind of thing. I may review it.

JUL131137 RAY AND JOE HC MAN AND HIS DEAD FRIEND $29.99
God bless Fantagraphics for publishing an entire volume of work from a cartoonist I barely know, Charles Rodrigues. That's a rare experience these days, and I'm enjoying the book this week right before bedtime. I'll let you know how it is.

*****

The full list of this week's releases, including some titles with multiple cover variations and a long, impressive list of toys and other stuff that isn't comics, can be found here. Despite this official list there's no guarantee a comic will show up in the stores as promised, or in all of the stores as opposed to just a few. Also, stores choose what they carry and don't carry so your shop may not carry a specific publication. There are a lot of comics out there.

To find your local comic book store, check this list; and for one I can personally recommend because I've shopped there, albeit a while back, try this.

The above titles are listed with their Diamond order code in the first field, which may assist you in finding comics at your shop or having them order something for you they don't have in-stock. Ordering through a direct market shop can be a frustrating experience, so if you have a direct line to something -- you know another shop has it, you know a bookstore has it -- I'd urge you to consider all of your options.